Community organization creates scholarship in lawman's memory

Sometimes a person’s legacy lives on in people’s hearts, sometimes it becomes a perpetual gift.

That’s the idea behind a new scholarship created by the Gray Community Chest and available to Daniel Boone High School seniors. The community chest has awarded four $1,000 scholarships to Boone students the last several years. Two are standing memorials to specific people and the other two have been named for other people on a rotating basis. Now, one of those will have a permanent name — The Patrick Littleton Scholarship.

Littleton, 54, was the Washington County Sheriff’s Office’s chief deputy at the time of his death on Aug. 26 following a brief illness. He had served in every capacity since he joined the department in1985 after several years in the Marines. He worked throughout the department, starting as a jailer, until he became an administrator. His death shocked the Sheriff’s Office as well as the community he served. Littleton had served in law enforcement and the community for Washington County more than 32 years.

“The relationship with the sheriff’s department and Community Chest, we just have a great working relationship with them,” Community Chest President Tony Barnes said. “We wanted to do something special for Patrick .... he served the community well and for may years, so we decided to do a scholarship in his hame. It’s a perfect fit. We need to pay respect to someone like Patrick. That’s why we do the things we do.”

Ironically, Barnes said, the first recipient was the son of a Washington County deputy.

Tyler Wines, son of Lt. Randall Wines, learned he’d received the scholarship earlier this month. Tyler’s essay was about his own desire to help and serve others, just as Littleton had done and the Community Chest continues to do, his father said. Tyler said he grew up sitting beside Littleton’s mother on a school bus while Littleton’s father drove the bus.

“With my dad being an officer, I knew him, too,” Tyler said. “I had been to his house a few times with my father.”

The teen said because of Littleton’s public service and lifetime of helping people, he also wants to work with the public — although he doesn’t intend to do that in law enforcement. He plans to attend East Tennessee State University to study health sciences and possibly become a radiologist.

Barnes said the committee that went through the applications and read essays students wrote were unaware of Tyler’s connection to the sheriff’s office prior to the decision.

“The committee didn’t know who he was other than a student,” Barnes said. “It turns out his dad is a sheriff’s office deputy. It was a perfect fit and it was perfect timing. Based on his essay, he was very deserving of the scholarship.”

Robin Littleton, Patrick’s former wife, said she and their sons, Josh and Jeremy, were grateful the Community Chest would remember Patrick this way.